Birds of a feather..!

In my last blog I mentioned that once I recover my senses, I will write about the experience I had. Guess it has taken a year for that to happen, and I think I might just go senseless again, after this one!

But the raison d'etre for the predicament that beeches me this time, is intricately related to the one faced the last. That of putting in words an experience and appreciation for beauty. Shakespeare had said, "If music be the food of love, play on...", and I will rest my case for the last blog with that.

Looking at nature though, one realizes that all of the wonders that man creates, is just a speck of dust compared to what nature itself has to offer. After all, so many of the designs and art that we create or incorporate, are inspirations drawn from nature and nature's laws. Music too, for example, draws inspiration from the beauty of nature. Our feelings of looking at a sunset on the ocean, or a majestic waterfall or the flutter of wings (or eyelashes!) or just of the silence in a forest, is more accurately described through music, more closely than what words can, the experience that our senses witness.

In that context, how many times I would have seen birds and been to a zoo or other such places and just taken a look at them. But I think this time it was a whole different experience altogether. And it helps when you have a bird expert to explain all the different qualities about them! You tend to notice what was always there..

So it was really nice to look at a wide variety of birds and take "stock!" of what was on offer.

The first was the Egrets, part of the heron family, and a white bird that comes in various sizes (the great, intermediate, cattle, little and many others!) and I realized they are hard working fellows. Wiki says: The word "egret" comes from the French word "aigrette" that means both "silver heron" and "brush", referring to the long filamentous feathers that seem to cascade down an egret's back during the breeding season.

I saw Cormorant's as well, but I did not appreciate it very much. It looked way too clever and I got negative vibes from it! Interestingly, the cormorant was the disguise used by Satan in John Milton's "Paradise Lost", a classic epic poem which I fondly remember for various reasons. The cormorant was known to be a traditional symbol of greed and greedy men. Perched atop the "Tree of Life" (apples anyone?!), Satan took the form of a cormorant as he spied on Adam and Eve during his first intrusion into Eden..!! No wonder I got negative vibes looking at it :)

Of course, that is only on a lighter note. It appears that some of this species were present even at the time of the dinosaurs and its structure has not changed very much. They come in various shapes and sizes as well. So they are really a pretty old and solid species which is awesome.

Then there were Heron's, birds characterized by their long legs. There was a Grey heron,  a Pond heron, a Purple heron and a Night heron. The last one is a red-eyed, yellow legged birdie which gives a feeling that it has either not slept at all or is high on something! The others were a variety of whites yellows and browns. And they have an interesting method of catching fish - by deception! Apparently, they put bits of grass or leaves in the water so that the fish come out enquiringly...and of-course, the heron is waiting in anticipation..you know what happens next!

Pelican's are majestic looking birds, with large pouch carrying throats. I saw a spot-billed pelican but I think there are lots of other ones in the world. They look really massive up close. I saw one which was feeding its young one. Wiki says that pelicans were considered as very compassionate birds in literature. In Europe, the pelican was thought to be particularly attentive to her young, to the point of providing her own blood by wounding her own breast when no other food was available. The legends of self-wounding and the provision of blood may have arisen because of the impression a pelican sometimes gives that it is stabbing itself with its bill. In reality, it often presses this onto its chest in order to fully empty the pouch.

This apart, I also saw a Stone Plower, a bird which looks just like the color of the rocks that it dwells on. Also saw a Painted Stork (not "stroke", "smock" or "sock"!!), which had a orange beak and pink-white-black colored feathers. The Stork and the Ibis apparently belong to the same family of birds. I am not sure how true it is, but it seems that when the juveniles in this species are threatened by bigger birds, they feign their death!

There was also a River Tern - yellow beaked and yellow tongued - which is a little nut of a bird which lays its eggs outside on the rocks. They are tough little fellows, as it seems they will peck away at any birds or even the eyes of the croc's which might want to eat their eggs. Even though I was at touching distance to it, it just sat there sternly..hmm Tern-is-Stern :)

There were others too, Open bill and a Spoon bill, both characterized by the peculiar shape of their bills, with the latter also having a little color on its bill tip! I also saw the Wagtail, characterized by their long tail feathers, and the common Mayna, which can be seen everywhere actually. There was also Darters, also called as snakebirds, which was sun-bathing! Similar to cormorats, they too get into water to get fish, so actually, they need to dry their wings..

I also saw a small blue Kingfisher too. It was beautiful. It was so near, and yet so far... :) There are many varieties of them it seems, but did not get to see any others. Then there were the sunbirds, coucal (which makes a screechly sound) and fruit bats, called so because they live off on fruits and berries. Also saw a Brahminy Kite, they have deep brown color wings and a white head.

All in all, I think the experience of seeing and knowing about these few birds tell me, just how un-aware we are of our surroundings. When we keep our eyes open and our ears attentive, we can see and listen to nature in all its magnificent splendor. It also seems that nature, literature, music and everything of art, does a fusion of sorts to play out a grand enigma, which while not to be deciphered thread-bare, can still be savored eternally..

Shakespeare had this to say: "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin..", which I think rings true. There appears no walls of differences in our awe and splendor for nature.

So when you see the wide-expanses of the sky and birds flying high above your head, realize how much is possible. We have much to learn..!